A stunning debut novel from the author of "My Own Country": an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, fathers and sons, doctors and patients, exile and home.

From the Publisher:The twin sons of a secret love affair between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Addis Ababa, Marion and Shiva Stone are orphaned by their mother's death in childbirth and father's disappearance, coming of age in an Ethiopia on the brink of revolution, bound together by a shared interest in medicine and forever divided by their love for the same woman. A first novel. 150,000 first printing.The twin sons of a secret love affair between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Addis Ababa, Marion and Shiva Stone are orphaned by their mother's death in childbirth and father's disappearance, coming of age in an Ethiopia on the brink of revolution, bound together by a shared interest in medicine and forever divided by their love for the same woman. A first novel. 150,000 first printing.

Annotation:Twin brothers born of an illicit affair between an Indian nun and a British doctor experience love, loss, and the true healing power of medicine in this epic tale. Marion and Shiva Stone are raised as orphans at the Ethiopian mission hospital where they were born, after their mother dies during childbirth and their father vanishes. Their shared love for medicine forges a tight bond between them, but their love for Genet, a young girl at the hospital, eventually forces them apart. Marion goes to America, where he comes of age as an intern at an impoverished Bronx medical clinic, but he can never leave his past completely behind. This is the first novel from Dr. Abraham Verghese (MY OWN COUNTRY), and he weaves several detailed descriptions of unusual medical emergencies into the compelling narrative. Selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 100 Best Books of 2009.

Praise

"...Verghese's weaving of the practice of medicine into the narrative is fascinating even as the story bobs and weaves with the power and coincidences of the best 19th-century novel." (starred review) 10/27/2008

"Even with its many stories and layers, CUTTING FOR STONE remains clear and concise...I felt as though I were with these people, eating dinner with them even, feeling the hot spongy injera on my fingers as they dipped it into a spicy wot." - W. Ralph Eubanks 02/01/2009

"Set against a backdrop of political and cultural dissonance, CUTTING FOR STONE is an admixture, a marvel of intimacy and sweep. In it, the reader is taken under the skin - in the operating rooms and into the lives of a Dickensian cast of characters." - Heidi Benson 02/04/2009

"Verghese has written two graceful memoirs...but his wildly imaginative fictional debut is looser, bigger, even better." - Jennifer Reese 02/20/2009

"Verghese bends history and coincidence to his narrative needs...creating a story much like the human bodies Marion painstakingly describes: beautiful, amazing, and a bit of a mess." 03/09/2009